File formats that are supported in Excel
In Excel 2010, you can use other formats such as PDF and XPS.
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You can save a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 file in another file format by clicking the Microsoft Office Button , and then clicking Save As. The file formats that are available in the Save As dialog box vary, depending on what type of sheet is active (a worksheet, chart sheet, or other type of sheet).
You can open a file that was created in another file format (in an earlier version of Microsoft Office Excel or in another program) by clicking the Microsoft Office Button , and then clicking Open. You will be prompted to save it to an Office Excel 2007 format, unless you open a workbook that is shared. For files that were created in an earlier version of Excel, you have the option to keep the original format.
In this article
Excel formats
|
Format |
Extension |
Description |
|
Excel Workbook |
.xlsx |
The default Office Excel 2007 XML-based file format. Cannot store Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro code or Microsoft Office Excel 4.0 macro sheets (.xlm). |
|
Excel Workbook (code) |
.xlsm |
The Office Excel 2007 XML-based and macro-enabled file format. Stores VBA macro code or Excel 4.0 macro sheets (.xlm). |
|
Excel Binary Workbook |
.xlsb |
The Office Excel 2007 Binary file format (BIFF12). |
|
Template |
.xltx |
The default Office Excel 2007 file format for an Excel template. Cannot store VBA macro code or Excel 4.0 macro sheets (.xlm). |
|
Template (code) |
.xltm |
The Office Excel 2007 macro-enabled file format for an Excel template. Stores VBA macro code or Excel 4.0 macro sheets (.xlm). |
|
Excel 97- Excel 2003 Workbook |
.xls |
The Excel 97 - Excel 2003 Binary file format (BIFF8). |
|
Excel 97- Excel 2003 Template |
.xlt |
The Excel 97 - Excel 2003 Binary file format (BIFF8) for an Excel template. |
|
Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook |
.xls |
The Excel 5.0/95 Binary file format (BIFF5). |
|
XML Spreadsheet 2003 |
.xml |
XML Spreadsheet 2003 file format (XMLSS). |
|
XML Data |
.xml |
XML Data format. |
|
Excel Add-In |
.xlam |
The Office Excel 2007 XML-based and macro-enabled Add-In, a supplemental program that is designed to run additional code. Supports the use of VBA projects and Excel 4.0 macro sheets (.xlm). |
|
Excel 97-2003 Add-In |
.xla |
The Excel 97-2003 Add-In, a supplemental program that is designed to run additional code. Supports the use of VBA projects. |
|
Excel 4.0 Workbook |
.xlw |
An Excel 4.0 file format that saves only worksheets, chart sheets, and macro sheets. You can open a workbook in this file format in Office Excel 2007, but you cannot save an Excel file to this file format. |
Text formats
|
Format |
Extension |
Description |
|
Formatted Text (Space-delimited) |
.prn |
Lotus space-delimited format. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
Text (Tab-delimited) |
.txt |
Saves a workbook as a tab-delimited text file for use on another Microsoft Windows operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
Text (Macintosh) |
.txt |
Saves a workbook as a tab-delimited text file for use on the Macintosh operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
Text (MS-DOS) |
.txt |
Saves a workbook as a tab-delimited text file for use on the MS-DOS operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
Unicode Text |
.txt |
Saves a workbook as Unicode text, a character encoding standard that was developed by the Unicode Consortium. |
|
CSV (comma delimited) |
.csv |
Saves a workbook as a comma-delimited text file for use on another Windows operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
CSV (Macintosh) |
.csv |
Saves a workbook as a comma-delimited text file for use on the Macintosh operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
CSV (MS-DOS) |
.csv |
Saves a workbook as a comma-delimited text file for use on the MS-DOS operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
DIF |
.dif |
Data Interchange Format. Saves only the active sheet. |
|
SYLK |
.slk |
Symbolic Link Format. Saves only the active sheet. |
Other formats
|
Format |
Extension |
Description |
|
DBF 3, DBF 4 |
.dbf |
dBase III and IV. You can open these files formats in Excel, but you cannot save an Excel file to dBase format. |
|
OpenDocument Spreadsheet |
.ods |
OpenDocument Spreadsheet. You can save Excel 2007 files so they can be opened in spreadsheet applications that use the OpenDocument Spreadsheet format, such as Google Docs and OpenOffice.org Calc. You can also open spreadsheets in the .ods format in Excel 2007. Formatting might be lost when saving and opening .ods files. |
Clipboard formats
You can paste data from the Microsoft Office Clipboard into Excel by using the Paste or Paste Special command (Home tab, Clipboard group, Paste button) if the Office Clipboard data is in one of the following formats.
|
Format |
Extension |
Clipboard type identifiers |
|
Picture |
.wmf or .emf |
Pictures in Windows Metafile Format (WMF) or Windows Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF).
|
|
Bitmap |
.bmp |
Pictures stored in Bitmap format (BMP). |
|
Microsoft Excel file formats |
.xls |
Binary file formats for Excel versions 5.0/95 (BIFF5), Excel 97-2003 (BIFF8), and Office Excel 2007 (BIFF12). |
|
SYLK |
.slk |
Symbolic Link Format. |
|
DIF |
.dif |
Data Interchange Format. |
|
Text (tab-delimited) |
.txt |
Tab-separated text format. |
|
CSV (Comma-delimited) |
.csv |
Comma-separated values format. |
|
Formatted text (Space-delimited) |
.rtf |
Rich Text Format (RTF). Only from Excel. |
|
Embedded object |
.gif, .jpg, .doc, .xls, or .bmp |
Microsoft Excel objects, objects from properly registered programs that support OLE 2.0 (OwnerLink), and Picture or another presentation format. |
|
Linked object |
.gif, .jpg, .doc, .xls, or .bmp |
OwnerLink, ObjectLink, Link, Picture, or other format. |
|
Office drawing object |
.emf |
Office drawing object format or Picture (Windows enhanced metafile format, EMF). |
|
Text |
.txt |
Display Text, OEM Text. |
|
HTML |
.htm |
Hypertext Markup Language.
|
File formats that are not supported in Excel 2007
The following file formats are no longer supported in Office Excel 2007. You cannot open or save files in these file formats.
|
Format |
Extension |
Clipboard type identifiers |
|
Excel Chart |
.xlc |
Excel 2.0, 3.0, and 2.x file formats |
|
WK1, FMT, WK2, WK3, FM3, WK4 |
.wk1, .wk2, .wk3, .wk4, .wks |
Lotus 1-2-3 file formats (all versions) |
|
Microsoft Works |
.wks |
Microsoft Works file format (all versions) |
|
DBF 2 |
.dbf |
DBASE II file format |
|
WQ1 |
.wq1 |
Quattro Pro for MS-DOS file format |
|
WB1, WB3 |
.wb1, .wb3 |
Quattro Pro 5.0 and 7.0 for Windows. |
Tips for file formats that are not supported by Excel
If a file format that you want to use is not supported in Excel, you can try the following:
-
Search the World Wide Web (WWW) for a company that makes file format converters for file formats that are not supported in Excel.
-
Save to a file format that another program supports. For example, you may want to import your spreadsheet into another program that does not support the Excel file format. But the other program may be able to import another supported file format, such as an XML spreadsheet or a text file format. In this case, you can save your workbook to the XML spreadsheet format, and then from the other program, import the XML file.